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| CUPE wams of privatization
; threat to Canadian hospitals

When you tie in the fact that corporations have
practically unlimited financial, advertising and

UNI

“‘We’re a force to be re-
ckoned with — no longer will we
stand with heads hung and
humbly accept the dole ...”’

By MIKE PHILLIPS :
1983 dawned with an ominous development in

, ur health care system, that threatens its destruc-
tion, unless people can get together to stop the
trend.

January 1, 1983 was the day a U.S.-based
multi-national corporation, American Medical
International (AMI), of Beverly Hills, California,
took over the management of the Hawkesbury Dis-
''tict General Hospital.

_What happened in this relatively small commu-
nity on the Ontario-Quebec border, about 80 km,
2 (50 miles) south-east of Ottawa, could soon be
" Tepeated in too many similar communities caught
inthe wringer of increased government cutbacks to
fund hospital budgets.

In 1981, the only two hospitals in the town of
#000 merged. The Board of Directors wanted to
build a new 116-bed facility; the Ontario Govern-
ment agreed to provide two thirds of the funding, if
million could be raised locally. ;

AMI got its foot in the door when it agreed to
Perce $6-million in loan guarantees as part of a
: fe to manage the hospital at $300,000 a year for
ne next 12 years.

:. AMI got its foot in the door when it agreed to
_ Provide $6-million in loan guarantees as part ofa
: tract with the board or directors lets the U.S.
' Nulti-national keep whatever it can shave off the
| Operating budget above the promised $750,000.

ae Canadian Union of Public Employees
\ : UPE), representing the workers who will be the
’ Victims of this ‘‘efficiency’’ drive by AMI is against
‘ immorality of allowing private profits to be
_ Squeezed out of the provision of essential services.
CUPE also warns that all the evidence gathered
eo far, on the impact of privatization on public
| Sector services, including health care, demon-
’ Strates that jobs are lost, services decline, and in
Some cases, graft and corruption begin to run
_ Tampant.

The union, in a recent study on the growing
_ threat of privatization to the health care sector,
' Points to Britain, where a model, universally
| *cessible care and delivery system has been
’ transfigured through privatization into a two-tiered
’ System favoring the rich and abandoning the poor.
AMI has said that at least 10% of the work force
at the Hawkesbury hospital will be gone through
i eouon by 1985 and that 80% of the annual
1 shea “savings” will be effected through staff
_ _ Ontop of that, the company intends to boost its
_ Profits by selling such services as diet counselling
_ and fitness programs to the community. ° ‘There isa
Strong Possibility that we will see an explosion of
_ Hawkesburys in the very near future unless we
Tete to prevent it now’’, the CUPE brief

Font

_ _ AMI claims to be in the process of negotiating
Contracts with 10 other Canadian hospitals — in
: Seno, Alberta and B.C. The ‘‘open for busi-
ve Mentality of the Tory governments that rule
pee but two provinces sets the stage for further
_ attacks by private business on public health care
And its delivery.

lobbying resources, with the government’s drive
for cutbacks in social sector spending, the small
and medium-sized institutions are sitting ducks for
privatization, unless the public refuse to be shafted
this way and press their governments to act in
stopping the drift toward it.

AMI, one of the three largest private health care
corporations owns or manages more than 120 dif-
ferent hospitals in 12 with U.S. countries. It
employs some 31 ,000 people and realized a profit of
$79-million last year, a big jump from $33-million it
made in 1980.

Extendicare Inc., another private health care
corporation owns or manages some 40 nursing
homes in Canada, including 15 in Ontario and 38
others in the U.S. It also wants to get into the
hospital management business and its officers are
presently holding discussions with various provin-
cial governments.

They see themselves carving out a profitable
empire in Chronic care hospitals. Extendicare al-
ready manages two of them in Saskatoon and
hopes to clinch a deal, soon, where it will help build
and manage a separate chronic care facility on the
grounds of an Ontario hospital. Like AMI, Exten-
dicare is on the move, with negotiations for similar
deals at six other Canadian hospitals.

CUPE stresses the need for hospital workers to
lose no time in mobilizing against privatization of
their hospitals at the first sign such developments
are brewing. Also the union urges its members and
people in the community to get elected to their
hospitals’ board of directors to be better able to
influence the direction public medicine will take in
their communities, and stop the disintegration of
the health care system.

‘‘Profitability,”” the union argues, can only be
won in the health care field by reducing staff and
the quality of service. The first result of the a
private takeover is less staff and more unemploy-
ment.

‘‘Private ownership or management will always
have profit as its priority, not patient care’’, the
CUPE study says. “Indeed, in the Hawkesbury
story the whole emphasis has been the supposed
‘cost savings’ of privatization — not a word about
improving or even maintaining the level of patient
care.”

“Every health care worker in this country

should be concerned about privatization’’, and the

union might have added, so should the rest of us.

Union demands jobs kept at SGI

jobless, Niagara Penninsula

. Here’s what he had to say ina

trade unionist holding office in
my small local plant. I helped
my fellow workers resolve
grievances and other problems
they may have had, to the best

- unemployment.”

W REGINA — The Saskatche-
an Insurance, Office and
fessional Employees Union
PEIU) filed a grievance March
With management of Sas-
tchewan Government Insur-
one (SGI), over the recent. lay-
S of 120 SGI workers.

OPEIU representative Dave

aki charged the SGI action i$ a

Clear violation of the union’s to two private insurance com-' SGI's board of directors, and the the establishing of help centres and organizing the jobless around
Collective agreement with the panies in each area the gove™m: curt of one of the private firms | economic and political issues stemming from the economic crisis.
_ 8©vernment-operated insurance ment-run bureaus are being in Weyburn that stands to gain the a
_ ©0rporation. closed. These are in Weyburn, licensing rights. Mike Phillips

Maki charged the layoffs result
from the government contracting
out licensing responsibilities that
would normally be performed by
OPEIU members in SGI Motor
Vehicle Division offices. The con-
tract clearly states that contract-
ing out can only occur as long as
workers covered in the collective

ment won’t be displaced.

SGI has turned over licensing

Estevan, Swift Current and North
Battleford.

Maki has written to the cor- -

poration demanding the layoffs be
rescinded, and has indicated the
union is considering trying to sec-
ure an injunction to stop the lay-
offs.

The union has also raised the
charge of conflict of interest
involving Ron Jeffery, who is on

_ offering a free jobs listing service, which is aimed at driving Job

ee eee
This mood, summed up by a

worker is taking hold among
many unemployed Canadians
as they begin to reap the re-
wards of organizing them-
selves and fighting back.

recent letter to the Trib:
‘*A year ago I was an active

of my ability. It was a rewarding position, and I felt good about
the gains we made at contract time, and the slowly improving
working conditions.

Things change ina year, however, and my fellow workers and I
were all laid off permanently when the parent company decided
our plant was a “‘liability’’. We were all helpless to prevent it, and
there was not a thing I could do to help my co-workers — or
myself.

In my search for new employment I soon discovered how
many others shared my plight, and when I read in the Tribune
about the successes of others in organizing the unemployed I
decided to get involved. ;

Well, I haven't looked back. After getting involved with two
separate groups, I have found the work to be very rewarding, and
we have succeeded in getting a voice that can be heard by many.
At least one Job Mart office has closed as a result of the un-
employed and pointing out to them the inequities of the system
and how to help change it.

We need much more support, and we are getting it too, slowly.
but surely. The unemployed workers are a force to be reckoned
with. No longer will we stand with heads hung and humbly accept
the dole. Rather let us raise our voices in unison to demand

solutions to the underlying problems that are causing our

. * * * 4

With the backing of the local Catholic diocese and the Alberta
Federation of Labor, the Edmonton Committee of the Unemployed
is gearing up for acampaign to highlight the plight and anger of the
136,000 unemployed in the province. '

Protesting the provincial Tory government's refusal to seri-
ously recognize the problem in the latest throne speech, the
ECU, our Edmonton correspondent Chris Frazer reports, issued
layoff slips of its own to some 120 federal, provincial and civic
politicians including Prime Minister Trudeau, Premier
Lougheed, and Edmonton Mayor Cec Purves.

“We can’t afford to maintain these ‘employees’, especially
when we see such little return for our ‘investment’, so, we're
laying them off for incompetence, the inability to accept respon-
sibility, and lack of productivity’’, Keith Rimstead, an ECU
spokesperson said. :

Further actions are planned including a picket at City Hall
against utility shut offs,and a campaign to expose the deplorable
conditions and shortages at singles’ hostels. Single unemployed
are dropped from the welfare rolls after two months, Frazer
reports.

* * *

Unemployment lines: Vancouver City Council has demanded
that Job Mart ‘‘show cause”’ why its business license should not
be suspended or revoked, after a meeting, March 15, where
council unanimously agreed to press the B.C. Socred labor minis-
try to initiate prosecution proceedings against Job Mart owner
Trevor Madden. A community service committee report to
council said Job Mart is ‘operating a deceptive business in
violation of the Employment Standards Act’’ under a section
which prohibits charging fees for jobs or information about job
vacancies . .. April 5 will be the official opening of St. Catharine’s
Unemployment Help Centre which, in. addition to providing the
area’s jobless wtih a place to go, will offer jobs listings and
counselling services, and a soup kitchen.

The centre will be located at 145 King Street . .. Hamilton’s Wage
Restraint and Unemployed Co-Ordinating Committee is now

“Mart out of business in the Steel town. ““We’re going to provide
more than Job Mart does without the $50 fee’’, help. centre
spokesperson Kerry Wilson said . .. The United ‘Auto Workers at
its latest Canadian district council meeting has pledged itself to a
‘‘maximum effort’’ in a campaign to reach out to, and help
organize unemployed workers. UAW locals have been directed
by the council to take part in the campaign aimed at stepping up

NE

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 1, 1983—Page 7

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